Played ftf with Hugmenot.

I had to try. The British advance on Lehr holding a bridge and a town. A major British victory awaits the commander who can take both the town and the bridge in the short amount of time available (only 12 turns). Taking one or the other appears quite straightforward and will lead to a British victory. Both Daniel and I felt that such a result seemed quite likely.

My troops entered from the north edge of the board and immediately avoided the only place where Lehr could ambush me, in the woods leading to the town. For two turns my troops seemed to head directly for the bridge in order to capture the minor victory. While I could have entered on the western edge of the board I would then have had to fight nearly all of the Lehr foces at once for the town and without the ability to freeze some of the troops in place even capturing the town seemed out of the picture.

After two turns my attempt to gather a major victory came into focus and my troops found a central position between the two German forces. The remainder of the game saw me trying to juggle my forces (which had some morale problems) between the two objectives. I must have donw a good job because the scenario came down to a single die roll at botht he town and the bridge on the last turn of the game.

Sadly for me, neither die roll went my way.

I did however, manage to create some economic benefit to the local French as with the number of Shermans I left on the field burning their scrap iron markets would be filled for months to come.

I had a great time with this one as my plan to split the Germans into two non-supporting pockets worked to perfection and only the wastage of troops during the scenario kept me from taking both objectives. A very clear and well measured scenario in my opinion. Again a British win is likely if the British player is conservative. I wasn't. I rate this one a "4".

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	goosebrown
Play Date	2025-07-26
Language	English
Scenario	PaLe002

This was a fun-filled, but slightly gamey, 4-session play through with undaunted and clever Goosebrown leading attacking elements of the His Majesty’s 8th Battalion Durham Light infantry, supported by the 24th Lancers in a relatively short, 12-turn battle. I led defending elements from the German 901st Panzergrenadier Regiment of the Panzer Lehr Division in this 2-map battle. Both sides drew middling leaders.

We played using the FOW, consolidation, smoke/Illum, extended assault, selected hidden units (Half the German force), tank riders, strategic movement and excess initiative optional rules. Again, we used these two house rules: 1) Road Movement for Mechanized & Foot Units - All FOOT & MECHANIZED units may move on roads at the rate of 1/2 of a Movement Point (MP) per road hex, just like MOTORIZED units, and 2) Standardized Movement for Mechanized Units — All mechanized units may move through clear hexes at a movement cost of only 1 movement point (MP) per hex, instead of 1 1/2. Add one to this cost if moving up, across, or down slopes hexes.

Our busy & surprising first session (game turns 1-4) featured an exceptional movement to contact by the British infantry from the north juncture of Maps 10 & 07. This led to a series of opfires, OBA strikes, adjacent-hex fire fights and finally a combined-arms close assault in forest hex 07-0304. The first of the Wehrmacht 75mm AT gun platoons was eliminated, as were a pair of hapless SPWs. An over exuberant Sherman tank platoon chasing a demoralized German Captain, fell victim to accurate AT fire and was eliminated about 800 meters east of St Pierre in the 4th game turn. Step loses this session totaled: 3 for the Jerries and 8 for the surging Tommies.

The slower paced, second session (game turns 5-6) featured a shift in the British game plan to limiting their movements to the covering woods north of St. Pierre. They also concluded a successful end to their close assault as they eliminated a fleeing unit of infantry. The Tommies only deficits were the loss of a pair of 81mm mortar platoons to German counter battery fire, and the accompanying loss of a level of initiative. Forward-deployed Panzer Lehr infantry elements in the north woods began pulling back to the town, while another unit closed with the advancing British in the fields northeast of St. Pierre.

Our action-packed, third session (game turns 7-10) featured the Brits getting dangerously close to the north & eastern margins of St. Pierre – yet thanks to adroit maneuvering in the surrounding fields – most units were still hidden from German observation. Excellent Tommy OBA and adjacent-hex fire eliminated a pair of Panzer Lehr mechanized infantry units northeast of the town. The advancing Brits lost only 2 steps of riflemen this session, but they were rapidly running out of time to liberate St. Pierre.

The fourth & final session (game turns 11-12) was a costly shoot 'em up on the margins of St. Pierre. Step losses were 8 for the Tommies, plus a Major, while the German garrison lost 2 more steps of infantry. Time simply ran out before the Brits could establish a foothold in the town or take the bridge across the Seulles River. This fracas ended as a German major victory. There were 6 FOW-shortened game turns of the 12 played.

This fun-to-play, somewhat gamey & slightly unbalanced scenario gets a 5 and is recommended for SOLO or SHARED play. The more experienced player should probably handle the attacking British force.

This replay was a bit funny because I really didn't pay close enough attention to the wording of the victory conditions for the British, and might have had an easier time of it as a result. In this battle the British need to capture a town and a bridge from a weak Lehr battalion, with a battalion of infantry and a battalion of Shermans to do it.

I split the German defenders into a stronger force holding the town and a weaker force the bridge. The British should have concentrated all their forces on the bridge , approaching from the north, and played for the minor victory. Instead I split my forces into stronger and weaker groups and tried to take both simultaneously. The town has a large area of fields to the south, so the British town assault force could approach mostly unseen.

Had their morale rolls gone better, the Germans stood a good chance of stalling the British drives in both locations. However, the British were quite lucky in delivering a good number of X and 2X results, and the Germans suffered a lot of leader losses and morale failures, making it very difficult for them to maneuver their forces. They did succeed in conducting a number of infantry assaults on tanks, and their Panzerfausts wreaked a toll on the Shermans and Fireflies.

The bridge was secured with relative ease, but the town required a protracted scramble to finally root out the last die hard defenders, with reinforcements trickling in from the successful bridge assault to allow the British to finally carry the town.

Not a bad scenario but it felt a bit disjointed in play, perhaps because I didn't stick to a sound plan for either side. Could be worth another play someday with my attention more focused.